Chicken (Turkey) Curry

What to do with all that leftover chicken or turkey?  There always seems to be leftover chicken or turkey.  Why not turn it into a completely different experience?  Why not turn it into a whole new dish?  "Leftovers?"  What's that?  With this recipe, you'll take your leftover chicken or turkey and turn it into something fabulous--and no one will ever guess that you used "leftovers."

Chicken (turkey) transformed!  A completely new dish has been born.

We're going to use a basic reduction sauce here.  A reduction sauce reduces the amount of liquids in your recipe while cooking the other ingredients.  In this case, some of those ingredients will break down over an extended cooking period and help to thicken the sauce.  A little bit of sweet rice flour furthers this cause, and you will end up with a deliciously thick and spicy sauce.  Irresistible!

In a small bowl, add the curry powder, sweet rice flour, ground fenugreek seeds, and cayenne powder.  Set this aside.  The picture on the right shows the tamarind concentrate I use.  There are many brands out there.  If you can't find it in your supermarket, try a health store or Indian food store.

In the bowl of your food processor fitted with the blade, add the onions, garlic, and sliced ginger.  Whir this up into a fine paste as you see on the right.

There it is again!  You know how much I LOVE ghee.  Add a few tablespoons of ghee to a saute pan.  Here's my recipe on how to make ghee.

Fry the onion mixture on medium heat, adding more ghee if necessary, until lightly browned.

Add the curry powder mixture and fry for half a minute.  Then add some water and stir.  You want to add enough to make a fluid but not too runny mixture.  Turn the heat to medium low and cook this down, stirring every few minutes, until the mixture gets thick again and threatens to stick to the bottom of the pan.  Then add more water and do the same thing again.  Do this a total of five times:  adding water and cooking down.

You can see on the left how the paste has cooked down after five additions of water, stirring, and cooking.  Now add the tamarind concentrate, honey, garam masala, salt, and pepper.  Add more water for a fluid paste.  Taste and adjust for seasoning.  If you want more heat, add more cayenne powder.  Simmer this for 10 minutes, adding or boiling off water as necessary to achieve the thickness you like.  The picture on the right shows the finished sauce.

Now add the chicken (turkey) and heat through.  You can see that the sauce has really browned up a lot from the addition of the final spices.

Serve with rice or gluten-free naan.  This is absolutely delicious!  You will find yourself going out of your way to get leftover chicken or turkey just to make this dish!

1.5 lb of chicken (turkey) cut into bite-sized chunks

3 tbs of ghee

2 large onions

2 cloves of garlic

1 inch of peeled and sliced ginger

2.5 tbs of curry powder

1 tbs of sweet rice flour

1 tsp of ground fenugreek seeds

1/4 tsp of cayenne powder

1 tsp of tamarind concentrate

1 tbs of honey

2 tsp of salt

1/2 tsp of garam masala

1/2 tsp of pepper

water as needed

Finely chop the onions, garlic, and ginger in a food processor fitted with the blade.  In a small bowl, combine the curry powder, sweet rice flour, ground fenugreek seeds, and cayenne powder.  Heat the ghee on medium heat and saute the onion mixture until lightly browned.  Add the curry powder mixture and saute for another half minute.  Add enough water to make a fluid but not too watery sauce.  Lower the heat to medium low and cook the sauce down until thickened and beginning to stick to the pan, stirring every few minutes.  Add more water and do the same again, for a total of five times:  adding water and cooking down.  Then add the tamarind concentrate, honey, salt, garam masala, and pepper along with enough water to make a fluid sauce again.  Cook this down once more, adding or boiling off water as needed, until you achieve the desired thickness.  Add the chicken (turkey) and heat through.  Serve with rice or gluten-free naan.

TIPS:

1.  Tamarind concentrate is a specialty item but worth going out of your way for, so check health stores and Indian stores for it.

2.  Fenugreek seeds are not sold powdered.  I powder mine in a coffee grinder that I have set aside just for powdering spices.  Fenugreek really adds that "Indian" taste, so again, it's worth going out of your way for it.

3.  If you can't get ghee and don't want to make it, just use oil here and not regular butter because butter will burn with all the frying.

Gluten-Free Pizza!

There are two things that gluten-free people miss the most:  bread and pizza.  Pizza is actually kind of an extension of bread, really, but it does seem to be one of those indispensable American foods.  When you can't have pizza, you feel like you've been left out in the cold and abandoned.  Pizza is even more important than sandwiches!  There are many foods people can do without, but pizza "ain't" one of them.

Here you see a nice gluten-free pizza, and as you can see, I am not "doing without."

Gluten-free bread and gluten-free pizza do not remotely taste like their gluten counterparts.  There are many things we can duplicate in the gluten-free world--almost everything, actually--but bread and pizza cannot be duplicated.  So when new gluten-free people try gluten-free bread or pizza, they are often disappointed because it doesn't "taste the same."  Some of that is just confusion and getting used to a gluten-free diet.  Some of it is what I have termed wheat prejudice.  In any event, my pizza will not taste like your favorite restaurant pizza . . . BUT for a gluten-free pizza (and I have eaten many of them), it's pretty darn good.

Mix all your dry ingredients together in the bowl of your mixer.  Use a whisk for this to make sure the xanthan gum is fully incorporated.  In another bowl, beat the egg and then add the oil.  Beat again and add 1/2 cup of water and 1/4 tsp of vinegar.  Have your sauce ready.  Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and begin to mix on low.  NOW, slowly add some water (probably 2-3 tbs) and mix at level 2 for about a minute.  You are aiming for a mixture that is very sticky and somewhere between mashed potatoes and play doh.  This is not a dough, but it isn't quite a batter either.

Use a rubber spatula and scoop the "dough" out onto a greased 12" pizza pan.  It will be too sticky to do this with your hands.  Have a small bowl of olive oil next to you.  Dip a couple of fingers in, rub the fingers of your hands together, and begin flattening out the dough.  You will probably only be able to press once or twice before your fingers get sticky and you need more oil.  If you get too much dough on your hands, rinse and dry them and then continue.  Keep oiling and spreading the dough.

As you oil and spread the dough, the surface will get more and more oil on it, and then you won't need as much oil.  Keep spreading the dough and go right up the lip of the pan to form the edge of your crust.  Make sure there are no holes in the dough anywhere on the crust bottom.

Bake the crust at 400 degrees for 7 minutes.  The picture on the left shows the crust after baking.  Don't worry if you see a small crack here or there as it's only superficial and won't go through to the bottom of the pan.  Then put your sauce on and bake for another 3 minutes.  The picture on the right shows the crust after baking.  Can you see that it has begun to pull just a little bit away from the sides?  That's perfectly fine.  Now add your favorite toppings and broil on high for 5 minutes two rungs beneath the broiler.  Turn the oven off and leave the pizza inside for another 5 minutes.

Because the crust pulls slightly away from the side of the pan, it's easy to slip a spatula underneath the pizza and quickly move the whole thing to some wax paper to cool.  The pizza on the left just came out of the oven.  The pizza on the right has cooled for 10 minutes and has then been sliced.

This pizza has mozzarella cheese, green peppers, onions, and pepperoni.  I like it blackened just a bit.  You will be amazed at how well this crust holds up!  Yes, you can pick it up just like "regular" pizza, and the crust edge gets nice and crispy.  It reheats beautifully the next day in a toaster oven.  There now, that wasn't so hard, was it?  :)

1/2 cup (97 g) of potato starch (not the same as potato flour)

1/2 cup (68 g) of tapioca starch

1/2 cup (59 g) of sorghum flour

1/4 cup (43 g) of buckwheat flour

1/4 cup (41 g) of white rice flour

1 tbs of sugar

1.5 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp of xanthan gum

1/2 tsp of salt

1/2 cup of water + 2-3 tbs

1 egg

2 tbs (25 g) of olive oil

1/4 tsp of vinegar

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Grease a 12-inch pizza pan.  Mix the dry ingredients together in your mixer bowl.  In a separate bowl, beat the egg and then add the oil and beat again.  Add 1/2 cup of water and 1/4 tsp of vinegar and mix well.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.  Mix on low for about 30 seconds.  Then mix on level two while adding water 1 tbs at a time.  Your goal is for a sticky mixture that is in between play doh and mashed potatoes.  This is not a "dough" you can pick up with your hands.  Using a rubber spatula, scoop the dough onto the greased pan.  Oil your fingers and begin to spread the dough out, oiling your fingers frequently.  Go right up the lip of the pan to form the edge of the crust.  Bake for seven minutes.  Add sauce and bake for 3 minutes.  Add toppings and broil on high for 5 minutes.  Turn off the oven and let the pizza stay in it (unopened) for 5 more minutes.  Remove from the oven, slip a spatula under the pizza, and remove it to wax paper.  Let cool for 10 minutes and then cut.  Makes one 12-inch pizza.

TIPS:

1.  I cannot stress enough how important a digital scale is in gluten-free baking.  You can pick one up at Target for about $25, and it is worth its weight in gold.  When you bake by weight instead of by volume, your results are much more exact and can be repeated every time.  If you insist on baking by volume, some recipes may turn out great and some may be a huge disappointment.

2.  If your fingers become full of dough while pressing it out, rinse them, dry them, and oil them again.  Once your fingers get "doughy," they won't spread the dough very well, oil or not.

3. If your dough seems very hard to spread, you did not add enough water.  Add more water next time.  It should be kind of mushy.

Country Neighbors

If you ever plan on living in the country, you've got to get used to some peculiarities amongst your neighbors (myself excepted, of course).  If you already do live in the country, then this post will come as no surprise, and perhaps you have some stories you could share with me yourself.

Country neighbors are a special kind of neighbor.  Here in Maine it is considered quite odd to close your curtains or shades--ever.  In fact, in some places I've lived in, there were many rooms that didn't even have curtains, just a valance up top.  Closing your house off is considered suspicious (what have you got to hide?), and it marks you as being "from away."  That's the worse insult you could ever get here:  "He's from away."  That's always responded to with a narrowing of the eyes, a slow nod of the head, and an "Oh, I see."

As if the person didn't already know that he was from away.  Country people know everything about one another, usually because people don't have curtains around here.  Odd custom, that.  Not that anyone would stare into anyone else's windows.  Well, not too much anyways.  And certainly never in a conspicuous way.  Of course, the farther out you live, the further the houses are from each other and your news won't be broadcast quite as easily.  In that case, it takes a little creative initiative, but rest assured that your neighbors will still know everything about you.

Take Lilyette, for example.  She lives about half a mile up the road.  There's no such thing as a short visit when Lilyette comes around.  It doesn't matter if you tell her you have somewhere to go.  She'll stay as long as she intended.  Of course, she didn't intend anything as she was "just out for a walk."  You can keep on working when she comes by, though.  She sure does like to talk, and being as isolated as we are around here, I never mind listening.  She'll talk about her whole family, including fifth cousins four times removed, by first name only as if I know them.  But no matter.  Eventually she'll get around to asking me what I'm doing and what it's for, etc.  Very often, she knows a lot about it already anyhow.  I posted an article a couple of weeks ago here about a fisher that had commandeered my hoop house.  Damned if Lilyette didn't know about it not even half an hour after it happened.  Seems in her travels she'd run into someone on the road who told her, who had heard it from someone else.  So when I went to tell her, she already knew and asked me if I had a name for the fisher.

But she's really nice, Lilyette is, and she's just a treasure trove of knowledge about local people, customs, and areas.  You can learn a lot from someone like her.  I genuinely like her, and I think she likes me too.  Which is a good thing, because Lilyette never has a problem speaking her mind to anyone (about anyone).  So she talks and I talk and by the time we finish, I know how much the local landfill charged her for some garbage metal she had lying around and how mad her husband was about that, I know who's planting what and where and who would have liked that (even though they're now dead), and I know who's fallen out of favor.  It's always a good visit when Lilyette comes by.

Old Howard stopped by a few days ago.  He always stacks his wood better than mine and noticed that these two-year-old cords of wood were well seasoned and should be used this year.  I had every intention of doing so but I didn't say as much.  Even if I had, he wouldn't have heard it because Old Howard is going deaf and you have to yell everything at him.  But this visit wasn't really about the wood.  It was about the carrots.  He wanted to know if I had any left in my garden that he could "borrow."  I told him I didn't have any left because I'd pulled up all the beds and got them ready for the winter.  He figured he'd go check anyway just to make sure, though, and sure enough he found out that I'd pulled up all the beds.  That's how he noticed the wood, which was a considerable distance from the garden.  "Oh, so you've pulled up all the beds then, have you?"  The thing about Old Howard is, he'd give you the shirt off his back if you asked for it.  Literally.  He would do that.  If he heard you asking, that is.  Old Howard's a good guy.

Of course, there's some strange ones too.  Take old neighbor Bob, for example.  Bob's just plain off his nut.  He lost his mind a long time ago, if he ever had it.  He's quite the recluse, but when he does come out, he usually kindly offers to kill someone's pet.  He's just trying to help and be neighborly, I guess, but none of us really need our pets killed so his talents appear to be wasted.  He does have another talent, and that's carpentry, at which he's quite good.  I wonder if he'll build a guillotine.  I wouldn't be surprised.

And there are others.  There's Greg who loves to play with his tractor.  Man, he'll dig anything up and bury it again in no time flat.  Jules builds wonderful things but has a dog who will tear your head off.  Tim and Jay have nose rings, which isn't that unusual, but they're in their 60s.  Jackie does a fine hokey pokey, and she is very fond of my orange marmalade.  And so on.

Last but not least, there's me.  The height of normalcy.  My neighbors sure are lucky to have me.  :)

Gluten-Free Fish 'n Chips

There are some staple foods that you simply can't give up.  Going gluten-free makes many people think they have to give up everything they used to love.  But it simply isn't so.  I will never--I repeat NEVER--give up my fish 'n chips!  Fortunately, this gluten-free recipe of fish 'n chips is so delicious, I won't have to.  I might even venture to say that it's even better than gluten-filled recipes.  Now that's saying something.

Does that look like something you might want to sink your teeth into?  It's just oozing "crispy," isn't it?

And how about these steak fries, or "chips," hmmm?  Think you might want to gobble some of those down?

So now that I have your attention, lol.  Fish 'n chips are just part of the American lifestyle, and at this point, so is being gluten-free.  Get yourself some nice mild fish.  Haddock is my favorite, but I couldn't get any today so what you see in the pictures is cod.  Cod fillets are very large, much larger than haddock.  I've got a little over 2 lb worth, and I've cut the two fillets down into six pieces.  Next you want to get yourself two russet potatoes, and they must be russet.  Other kinds of potatoes simply won't do for what we're trying to accomplish here.  So let's get started!

We're going to start with the potatoes first because they take longer to cook than the fish does.  Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.  Clockwise from top left:  two russet potatoes; then cut them in half; then cut each half in half, making quarters; then cut each quarter in half, slicing downward at a 45 degree angle.  You now have 16 pieces.

Now rinse all the pieces in water, both sides completely.  This is important.  There's a lot of starch in potatoes, and you want to rinse it away.  If you don't, they'll stick like mad to your pan and give you a gummy taste.  After you rinse the pieces, place them on a towel and put another towel on top.  Press down and dry each piece.  Put a good amount of oil (I never measure, maybe 1/2 cup) on a baking sheet.  Don't worry about using too much oil as the potatoes won't absorb that much.  Place all your slices on the oiled pan, and then turn them over so that all sides are well oiled.  Season your potatoes with your favorite seasonings.  (A prepared mix; salt and pepper; different herbs, etc.)  Put the potatoes in the oven.

Ta-da!!  What's this, you ask?  This, my dear readers, is the SECRET ingredient.  THIS is what will give you the most delicious, delightful, delectable fried coating on your fish--EVER.  A drum roll please . . . potato flakes.  Ha!  Yep.  You know those boxes of dried potato flakes they sell in the supermarkets?  The ones that make awful reconstituted mashed potatoes?  The ones you would never be caught using?  Well, they become a whole new product when you use them this way.  They redeem themselves!  As a coating, they fry up crisp and delicious with a sort of potato-chip crunchy taste.  And, of course, they're gluten-free.  :)

Set up your workstation like this:  Fish to the left, potato flakes in the middle, cutting board or platter to the right.  Place an eggwash in a bowl above.  It's one egg beaten with about 3/4-to-1 cup of milk (I never measure).  Slide each piece of fish into the egg wash and let it drain for a few seconds over the bowl.  Place it on the potato flakes and scoop up a bunch of flakes and dump them on top.  Press the flakes in well, adding and scooping up as you go until the fish is completely coated.  Set it aside on the board and do the same to all the other pieces.  

At this point, it may be time to check your potatoes.  If 10 minutes have passed, remove the potatoes from the oven and using thongs, turn each piece over.  Season them again and return to the oven for another 10 minutes.

Put about 1/4 inch of oil in a large nonstick electric frying pan and heat to 375 degrees.  (You can let it heat up while you're coating the fish.)  Place the fish in the hot oil and season with your favorite seasonings.  After 8-10 minutes, I turned over four of the pieces.  They were thinner pieces and they were cooking quicker.  I'll remove them from the pan sooner than the other pieces.  When you turn your fish, season it again.

At this point, it may be time to check your potatoes.  If 10 minutes have passed, remove the potatoes from the oven and using thongs, turn each piece over.  No need to season them again, just return to the oven for another 10 minutes.

 

Here are the potatoes after a total of 30 minutes.  Turn them one more time and place them in the oven for a final 10 minutes.  

At some point, while you are waiting for your potatoes to finish baking, the fish will be done.  Remove it to a serving platter.

Here you see the fried fish on the left and the finished potatoes on the right.  I placed them on some absorbent paper towels to remove any excess oil.

This looks ready to eat to me!  A nice coleslaw would be good with this and a lemon wedge to squeeze over the fish.

Here's a closeup.  Can you see how impossibly crispy that fish gets with the potato flake coating?  Each tiny piece makes it a personal mission to go "crunch" in your mouth!  And what about those fries, or "chips"?  Nice, huh?

2 lbs of fish (haddock or cod is good)

2 russet potatoes

dried potato flakes

1 egg and milk for an eggwash

oil for frying

POTATOES:  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Cut each potato into eight wedges.  Rinse each wedge in water and dry on towels.  Place on a baking sheet with plenty of oil and coat each side of the wedges with oil.  Season and bake for 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and turn each wedge over.  Season and bake for another 10 minutes.  Turn the wedges again and bake for another 10 minutes.  Turn them one more time and bake for another 10 minutes, for a total of 40 minutes of baking.  Remove to a plate.

FISH:  Preheat a large electric frying pan to 375 degrees.  Add about 1/4 inch of oil.  Dip each piece of fish in the eggwash and then dredge in the potato flakes, pressing in well to make sure that each piece is completely coated with potato flakes.  Season the fish and then fry until browned (8-10 minutes).  Turn each piece over and season again.  Fry until brown and crispy.  Remove to a platter.

TIPS:

1.  Be certain any seasonings you use are gluten-free.

2.  Ovens vary dramatically in temperature.  I've given times for my oven.  If you notice your potatoes getting way too brown, you may have to remove them sooner than the allotted 40 minutes.

How to Render Lard

Nowadays, not many people render their own lard.  In fact, not many people use lard at all, and that's a shame.  Lard is an excellent cooking fat and makes anything you're frying crispier and tastier.  It makes sublime pastry and pie crusts--just ask any chef or baker.  But it has gotten a bad reputation, hasn't it?  People use the term "lard" in such a derogatory way.  I can assure you that bad reputation is completely unfounded.  Did you know that lard is about 45% monounsaturated fat, 39% saturated fat, and 16% polyunsaturated fat?  Not bad at all for an animal fat.

Here you see a few quarts of home-rendered lard.  It ranges in color from white to light beige depending on which part of the pig the fat comes from. (Yes, I ended a sentence with a preposition.)

I'm going to show you how to render a small amount of lard in your own home.  The procedure is different for a small amount than it is for doing several pigs at once.  Basically what you're trying to do is melt the fat out of its membranous enclosure and evaporate any liquid left in the raw state.  This will make your lard stable and easier to cook with.  It will give it a uniform texture with predictable results.  So let's get started, and later in the article I'll give you some more ideas about lard and some links to check out if you want to learn more about fats.

This is about 9.25 lb of lard.  When you order it from your butcher or farm, it is referred to as "leaf lard" even though it hasn't been rendered yet--at least that's what the old-timers always called it.  There are different parts of the pig with different-tasting fats.  The "leaf fat" is found around the kidneys and inside the loin.  This produces the blandest tasting, whitest lard and is highly prized by chefs and bakers for making pastry.  "Fat back" is the fat between the back skin and the muscle of the pig.  "Caul fat" surrounds the digestive organs.  Ideally you want to get leaf fat if you can.  I suggest you start with 5 lb as it's an easy amount to work with.

Make sure your knife is very sharp.  Cut the lard into small pieces no more than 3/4 inch in size.  You must do this manually and not in the food processor.  The food processor will destroy the membrane surrounding the fat, and we don't want that.  If you see any small pieces of meat or blood, just cut them out and discard.  On the right you can see all of the fat in a large stock pot.  Don't fill the pot more than half full of fat.  It took me about half an hour to cut up 9.25 lb.

Turn your heat on low and begin to warm the fat.  You want to melt a nice layer at the bottom without burning it.  The picture on the left shows the fat after 15 minutes on low temperature.  I've stirred it and you can see some of it has grayed in color just a bit, and a small amount has rendered out.  After 15 minutes, you can turn your heat up to medium low, but never higher than that.  Stir every five minutes or so.  The picture on the right shows the lard after 30 minutes.  You can see it's losing its pinkish color.

The picture on the left shows the lard after 45 minutes.  I stir every 5 minutes or so when I remember.  You can actually start to see some rendered out liquid fat coming up the side of the pan, and the pieces of fat are taking on a light tan color.  But now look at the photo on the right!  After 1 hour of cooking, a lot more liquid fat has rendered out, and look at all the bubbles.  It is sizzling away softly, and you will be able to hear it.  You may also see some steam escape as you stir now and then.  That's good.  You want to evaporate any watery fluid left in the fat.  Remember:  Your heat goes no higher than medium-low.

The picture on the left shows the fat after 1 hour and 15 minutes.  There are still bubbles but they are lessening somewhat.  At this point, I use a potato masher and carefully press the fat down to the bottom of the pan.  Be careful here because it may splash up a bit.  This helps to squeeze more fat and any hidden liquid out of the little pieces, which you'll notice have gotten smaller.  The picture on the right shows the fat after 1 hour and 30 minutes.  The bubbles are almost all gone.  The sizzling sound can barely be heard.  I used the potato masher one more time and pushed down hard just to make sure there was nothing left in the fat pieces.  There were hardly any bubbles or sound.  This lard is ready!

Place a steel colander in a steel pan.  Don't use plastic here because the fat is really hot.  Line the colander with several layers of cheesecloth.  I usually have the whole thing sitting right in my sink.  On the right you can see the cheesecloth in the colander with a generous amount hanging over all sides.

Pour the entire contents of the pan into the cheesecloth-lined colander (picture on the right--switched them by accident, oops).  Most of the liquid will flow directly through into the pan below the colander.  Carefully gather up all the edges of the cheesecloth.  (Use a glove if it feels too hot.)  Twist the top closed, and then use a potato masher to press down on all sides of the balled-up fat.  Keep pressing and pressing as much as you can, allowing the fat to flow through the cheesecloth, into the colander, and then into the pan below.

Open the cheesecloth.  You'll see some flattened out little things.  Do you know what those things are??  Yes, my dear, those are called cracklins.  Carefully dump them onto a platter lined with paper towels.  Be careful because they're still very hot.  Sprinkle some salt and pepper on them and stir.  Do this a few times until the cracklins are well seasoned.  Then go ahead . . . try one . . .  I'll bet you can't eat just one!  They are soooo delicious!!

But back to the lard, lol.  I keep clean canning jars with lids ready and waiting in a 250-degree oven while I'm making my lard.  This way I know they're sterilized.  I took the temperature of the lard at the very end before I turned the heat off and it was 309 degrees (Fahrenheit).  That's well above the 240 degrees needed to kill botulinum toxin and spores.  It's also well below the smoke point of lard, which is about 375 degrees.  My lard was at a perfect temperature.  That's why your heat must be fairly low throughout the entire process or you'll burn the lard and it will taste awful.  I ladle the lard into the hot jars and place hot lids and screwbands on them.  Then I set them aside.  They form a vacuum seal on their own.

The next day, you can see the lard has solidified and become a nice light beige color.  I always label and date my jars and then put them away.  If you use lard a lot, you can leave an opened jar near the stove.  If you're not going to use it a lot, any opened jar should go in the refrigerator.

But back to those cracklins . . . go ahead.  Try just one.  Try it.  :)  They're so yummy!  People usually descend on them and devour them.  Any leftovers should go in the fridge.  They're delicious the next morning in scrambled eggs.  Just throw a big handful right in.  You can also place some in a small pan and put on low heat to reheat and eat as a snack.  No need for any additional grease.  Sometimes I think I render lard just so I can have the cracklins!!

A word about the lard found in most supermarkets.  OMG.  Don't buy it.  That stuff is rendered down from the worst, stinkiest pig fat ever.  They bleach and deodorize it, and it still stinks.  They also hydrogenate it to make it more shelf stable, which creates trans fats.  Then they add chemicals to preserve it.  Don't buy it.  It's crap.

Yes, you can now buy real lard online.  It's about $10 or so per pound.  Now I bought that pig fat above for $1 per pound.  I rendered out 4 quarts and almost another pint.  Each quart weighs about 1.5+ pounds.  I probably got about 6.5 lb or 7 lb of lard for about $9.25.  It would probably cost me about $70 if I bought that much online (not counting shipping), but then I wouldn't get any cracklins!!  No way am I going to spend that much money for what I can do myself.

Okay, what happens if you have tried and tried and you simply can't get pig fat from a butcher or farm due to living in a city or elsewhere?  Are you doomed to using vegetable (seed) oils?  Not at all.  You can re-use your rendered fat from cooking bacon.  It will give anything you cook with it a delicious smoky-bacon taste.

Or you can render other fat.  The next time you buy ground beef from a store, buy the one with the highest fat content.  Cook your meat as usual, but cook it a little longer.  As you know, when you begin to cook hamburger, fat and liquid get rendered out.  What you want to do here is cook off all the liquid.  You'll see the steam rising as you cook and stir.  When the steam is completely gone and you hear good sizzling going on, remove the meat with a slotted spoon.  Then pour the grease into a cheesecloth-lined strainer over a bowl or jar.  Voila!  You have rendered tallow.  When it's rendered pig fat, it's called lard.  When it's rendered cow fat, it's called tallow.  You can store this bowl of tallow in the fridge and use it for your frying throughout the week.  I am always amazed when I see people cook their hamburger, drain it, and throw the fat out.  Then they go and pour more oil into a pan or use butter to fry something.  They just threw perfectly good and healthy grease out!!  Why waste money and resources by doing so?  It never makes sense to me.

As I said above, lard has unfortunately gotten a bad reputation--all saturated or partially saturated fats have gotten a bad reputation.  I won't go into the gory details, but suffice it to say that those large "studies" that found saturated fat so bad for you were funded by the vegetable (seed) oil industry.  There were many level-headed researchers and doctors who were against maligning animal fats, but they were silenced.  See The Oiling of America for a very in depth look at exactly what happened to the view on fats in America.  It's a long article, but I promise you won't be bored.  And if you're still interested and want to know even more, read The Great Con-ola.  This is eye-opening stuff, folks.  I began to learn about all of this 15 years or so ago, and it changed my health and thinking for the better.

Gluten-Free Apple Crisp

Nothing says "Fall" and "country desserts" like apple crisp.  Oh, how I love it!  It's so simple to make, so much easier than a pie, and everyone seems to love it so much.  I have so many farm memories of sitting outside on a very cool day with a plate of hot, hot apple crisp with a large scoop of vanilla ice cream right next to it.  I would eat the hot apple crisp from one side and then cool my mouth with the ice cream from the other.  And the part in the middle where the two met?  Heaven on Earth.

A small plateful of heaven.  (Yes, I went back for another plate!)  No one will ever guess that this is a gluten-free dessert!

This recipe is very simple.  If you have apples, gluten-free flour, sugar, butter, and oats, you basically have apple crisp.  You can put it together in under half an hour, and it's delicious hot or cold.  So let's get started!

In the bowl of your food processor fitted with the blade, mix together the gluten-free flour, xanthan gum, cinnamon, and nutmeg for a few seconds.  Add the sugar and brown sugar and process until well blended.  Then add the butter in chunks and process again until the butter is in small pieces.  Dump all of this into a large bowl.

Add the oats to the mixture and mix in by hand.  We want the oats to remain whole, so don't add them to the food processor.  Peel, core, and slice the apples and add them to a buttered baking dish.

Distribute the the oat mixture evenly over the apples in the baking dish.  Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes.  Here you can see how the topping has browned some.  It's ready to remove from the oven when the sides have started to brown and there is bubbling/sizzling throughout, including the middle, although the middle won't be as browned.

1 cup (130 g) of gluten-free flour mix

1 cup (7 oz) of sugar

1 cup (7.5 oz) of packed brown sugar

1 cup (96 g) of certified gluten-free rolled oats

1 cup (8 oz, 2 sticks) of butter

1 tsp of cinnamon

1/2 tsp of xanthan gum

1/2 tsp of ground nutmeg

6-8 large apples, peeled, cored, and sliced

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and grease a 13 x 9 inch baking pan.  Add the gluten-free flour mix, xanthan gum, cinnamon, and nutmeg to your food processor bowl fitted with the blade and process for a few seconds.  Add both sugars and process again.  Add the butter in chunks and process until the butter is in small pieces.  Don't over-process, though, or you'll turn it into a dough.  Dump the contents into a large bowl, add the gluten-free oats, and mix thoroughly by hand.  Peel, core, and slice the apples and place in the baking dish.  You want to make sure the entire bottom is completely covered with apples.  If you have very large apples, you may only need six of them.  Otherwise, eight will do nicely.  Distribute the flour/sugar/butter/oat mixture evenly over the apples.  Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes.  When ready, the sides should be a medium brown color, although the middle will be paler.  There should be bubbling/sizzling throughout.  Serve warm or cold.  Delicious with vanilla ice cream on the side!

TIPS:

1.  I use my own gluten-free flour blend, called "Mel's Magic Mix," which is a blend of sorghum and rice flours with corn, potato, and tapioca starches.  My ratio is 3:1 (flours to starches), and I think this works well.  But you can use any good gluten-free flour mix.  If your mix already contains xanthan gum, then omit it when mixing up this recipe.

 

2.  Be sure to buy certified gluten-free oats.  Quaker and other ordinary supermarket oats are not certified gluten-free, and some people have problems with them.  Certified oats are grown in fields where wheat is never grown (as opposed to "regular" oats), harvested with equipment that does not touch wheat, and transported in clean sacks separately from wheat.  I use Bob's Red Mill oats.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

I ask you, what is life without chocolate chip cookies?  Can there be life without chocolate chip cookies?  I hardly think so.  Who doesn't remember warm, gooey chocolate chip cookies straight out of the oven?  Who doesn't smile when they think of it?  Then you go gluten-free, and you think your chocolate chip cookie days are over.  Oh dear, oh dear.

Those days don't look over to me.  What do think of these beauties?

The fact is, you can make wonderful gluten-free chocolate chip cookies, and the procedure is no different than making "regular" chocolate chip cookies.  You may find that you like these even better, and since store-bought gluten-free cookies are so expensive (and horrible!), it behooves you to learn how to do this.  I promise you that this is easy.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine the gluten-free flour, baking soda, salt, xanthan gum, and cream of tartar with a wire whisk.  I always use a whisk because then I know the xanthan gum is fully incorporated.  In your mixer bowl, add the sugar, brown sugar, shortening, and vanilla.  A scale really comes in handy here--no messy spoons or measuring cups.

Cream the ingredients on medium-low speed.  Don't beat it on high speed--we're making cookies here, not a cake, and we don't need to incorporate air.  Add the eggs one by one and mix well after each, again on medium-low speed.  See the nice golden color from the eggs?

Add your flour and begin mixing.  Scrape down the bowl if you need to do so.  You end up with a good cookie dough.

Here's a nice close-up of the dough.  Looks good, huh?  Now add your chocolate chips and mix until fully incorporated, no more than half a minute.

Before we bake the cookies, I'm going to show you something I usually do here.  I don't need 4 dozen cookies at once, so I freeze half of the dough.  Lay out a long piece of plastic wrap.  Scoop half of the dough onto it.  Roll it up, twisting the ends and folding under.  Do this TWICE with the plastic wrap, and you have a nice cylinder as you see in the middle.  Then wrap in a large sheet of tinfoil, twisting the ends and then turning them under.  Put the shiny side of the tinfoil toward the inside because labels don't like to stick to it.  Label your cookies, and then put the cylinder in a freezer bag and freeze.  That's four wrappings--2 plastic, 1 tinfoil, and 1 freezer bag.  This will keep for many, many months in the freezer.  When you're ready to use it, pull it out and leave it wrapped on the counter for a couple of hours to thaw and then use.  Or you can leave it overnight in the fridge to thaw out.

Roll some dough between your hands to form ping-pong ball-sized cookies.  Here you can see them just starting to melt in the oven.  Bake 12-14 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let them stay on the cookie sheets for a couple of minutes, and then remove them with a spatula to a cooling rack to cool completely.  On the right, you can see them cooling on a rack.  The ones on the left were baked a couple of minutes longer and will be a little crispier than those on the right.

And that's all there is to it.  I told you it was easy!

2 and 3/4 cups (358 g) gluten-free flour blend

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1 cup (6.5 oz) shortening

3/4 cup (5.6 oz) brown sugar

3/4 cup (5.25 oz) sugar

2 large eggs

1 tbs vanilla extract

2 cups (12 oz) chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Combine the gluten-free flour, baking soda, salt, xanthan gum, and cream of tartar in a medium-sized bowl with a wire whisk.  In the bowl of your mixer, add the brown sugar, sugar, shortening, and vanilla extract.  Mix on medium-low speed until creamed.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each.  Add the flour mixture all at once and mix just until combined.  Add the chocolate chips and mix until combined.  Roll dough between your hands to form ping-pong-sized balls.  Place on cookie sheets.  Bake for 12-14 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through.  Remove from the oven and let the cookies sit in the pans for two minutes.  Then remove with a spatula to a wire rack to cool completely.  Makes about 4 dozen.

TIPS:

1.  I use my own gluten-free flour blend, called "Mel's Magic Mix," which is a blend of sorghum and rice flours with corn, potato, and tapioca starches.  My ratio is 3:1 (flours to starches), and I think this works well.  But you can use any good gluten-free flour mix.  If your mix already contains xanthan gum, then omit it when mixing up this recipe.

 

2.  You can refrigerate your dough to make it even easier to work with, but it isn't necessary.  If your flours are coarse, it can help to soften them up a bit.  I always use finely-ground flours.

 

3.  A scale is invaluable in gluten-free baking.  Not only does it prevent messing up spoons, measuring cups, etc., with ingredients, but gluten-free baking can be tricky.  What if your flour weighs a lot more than mine because it's made of different flours?  Then 2 and 3/4 cups will be too much.  That's why it's always good to weigh your ingredients.  This way, your baking will be much more successful.

 

4.  Freezing the dough does not change the quality at all.  You can also freeze the cookies after baking them.  Be sure to wrap very well and use a couple of freezer-grade bags to freeze them.

 

5.  All ovens are different.  Mine takes about 12 or 13 minutes to bake these cookies nicely.  Yours may only take 10 minutes or may take 14 or 15 minutes.  Check the cookies in the oven at about the 9 or 10 minute mark.  You want to see them starting to brown, not just barely, but actually some brown beginning to creep up the cookie.  Experience with your own oven and with using this recipe will let you know exactly how long you need to bake these cookies.

6.  Be sure that your chocolate chips and vanilla extract are brands that do not contain gluten.

 

7.  A word about shortening:  Yes, I know it is not the greatest thing in the world.  They are now making it almost completely free of trans-fats.  Cookies are not health food and are not meant to be health food.  They are meant to be indulgences, and a few cookies here and there won't kill you.  Shortening makes a nice, poofy cookie.  Yes, you can use butter (1 cup), but your cookies will be flatter and may bake in less time.  Also, if you do choose to use butter, you must refrigerate the dough for a few hours at least before baking.  That will help with the flattening problem.  Butter has liquid in it, and it will make your dough gooier.